The Venice Biennale, often described as the Olympics of the art world, is set to begin previews on Tuesday amid several controversies. Key flashpoints include the sudden death of a curator, Russia's surprise participation despite ongoing geopolitical tensions, and an unconventional entry from the United States. These developments have intensified scrutiny and debate around the prestigious international exhibition.
The heirs of David Drake, an enslaved 19th-century potter known as Dave the Potter, are engaged in a legal and ethical struggle to recover his legacy and his works. They argue that his pottery, which includes jars inscribed with his name and poetry, represents their family's artistic and spiritual inheritance, and they are seeking recognition and a role in the stewardship of these artifacts.
Filipa Ramos has been appointed curator of the 19th edition of the Lofoten International Art Festival, set to take place across the Norwegian arctic archipelago in June 2027. Ramos, a curator and writer who teaches at the Institute Art Gender Nature of the Academy of Art and Design FHNW in Basel, is known for ecologically-focused research that reimagines human-animal-environment relationships. She authored *The Artist as Ecologist* (2025) and is currently organizing the LOOP Festival in Barcelona and the symposia series *The Shape of a Circle in the Mind of a Fish*, created with Lucia Pietroiusti.
A new book titled 'Art Cure' by scientist Daisy Fancourt argues that engaging with the arts has significant, measurable benefits for both mental and physical health. The author, a professor of psychobiology and epidemiology, compiles extensive research to claim arts experiences can prevent suicides, help manage epidemics, increase life expectancy, reduce depression, aid trauma recovery, enhance neuroplasticity, and even encourage healthier eating habits.
Martha Ortiz has stepped down as director of Bogotá’s Museo de Arte Moderno (MAMBO) amid allegations of harassing staff and fostering a toxic work environment. The museum announced her retirement and will begin a search for a successor, with board president Ángela Royo and financial manager Francy Hernández assuming interim leadership. Ortiz, who had no prior museum management experience, took the role in March 2024. Her departure follows the ousting of artistic director Eugenio Viola less than three months earlier, after he raised concerns about deteriorating working conditions.
Chile will participate in the 61st Venice Art Biennale with the exhibition "Inter-Reality" by artist Norton Maza, curated by Marisa Cachiolo and Dermis León, and managed by Claudia Pertuzé. The monumental installation, on view from May 9 to November 22, 2026 at the Sala dell'Isolotto in the Arsenale complex, contrasts an exterior referencing geopolitics, landscape, and ecology with an interior of precarious dioramas blending classical European painting and contemporary issues like fake news, migration, and environmental devastation. The work includes a soundscape of helicopters, airplanes, ancestral chants, and nature sounds recorded in Chile.
The Miguel Hernández University in Elche, Spain, presents "Vientos del pueblo. Voices of Exile and Resistance," a group exhibition curated by Mónica Sotos. Inspired by Miguel Hernández's poem "Vientos del pueblo," the show features Argentine artists Ježik and Costa alongside Eugenio Merino, Gloria Oyarzábal, Ricardo Calero, Óscar Seco, Pierre Valls, and María Rosa Aránega. Through photography, video, installation, drawing, and archival works, the exhibition examines violence, borders, exile, and colonial legacies, challenging dominant power narratives.
From May 13 to 15, 2026, the MACRO – Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Roma will host "Science Fashion," an event curated by Dobrila Denegri that explores the intersections of fashion, science, and new technologies. The program brings together international researchers and practitioners in experimental fashion to discuss urgent issues such as climate emergency, energy, and interspecies coexistence. It is part of the broader multi-year initiative "Experiments in Fashion and Art," launched in 2024 with "Critical Fashion," and involves collaborations with NABA, Sapienza University of Rome, and UnitelmaSapienza.
Alla Biennale di Venezia c’è un padiglione di merda! Il Lussemburgo partecipa con un progetto che fa parlare la cacca
The Luxembourg Pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale features an installation titled "La Merde" by artist Aline Bouvy, centered on a cinematic manifesto that uses excrement as a metaphor to explore shame, social classification, and bodily discipline. The immersive environment includes a film, spatialized sound composition, and a steel-and-mirror architecture, with an anthropomorphic talking, walking, and farting excrement puppet interacting with visitors. The work also includes a sculptural alter ego titled "E.T. The Excremential," blending Bouvy's body with Spielberg's extraterrestrial figure.
Maria Palmieri (Foggia, 1986) is a photographer who uses her camera as a tool for observation, understanding, and social improvement. After studying law, she turned to visual arts, blending reportage with vernacular photography to uncover truth amid the 'noisy horror' of contemporary life. In an interview with Artribune, she discusses her sociological approach to photography, her return to her hometown of Foggia, and her ongoing documentation of the region's fragilities, including the largest migrant ghetto in Europe.
Gli ispettori del Ministero della Cultura in Biennale presentano relazione: il padiglione Russia resterà chiuso
Italian Ministry of Culture inspectors have submitted a report to the Prime Minister's office regarding Russia's participation in the 2026 Venice Art Biennale. The report concludes that Russia did not receive a formal invitation from the Biennale Foundation to participate, nor did it sign the participation agreement—a situation shared by other countries with permanent pavilions. While Russia submitted a project and appointed a commissioner, its pavilion will remain closed to the public due to EU sanctions, though a private vernissage may proceed. The report finds no serious violations that would cancel Russia's participation, but notes critical issues that warranted more caution. The international jury resigned en masse after announcing it would not consider countries whose leaders are accused of crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court, including Russia and Israel, and after an Israeli artist threatened a discrimination lawsuit.
The Western Carolina University (WCU) Fine Art Museum is presenting the 2025 MFA Thesis Exhibition, running from April 8 through May 2, 2025. The show features work by four graduating Master of Fine Art students from WCU’s School of Art and Design: Daniel Simone, Yuwen Renjie, Jeannie Regan, and Joey Martin. Their works span alternative printmaking, social practice, material experimentation, and narrative painting, addressing themes of identity, cross-cultural experience, community engagement, and environmental challenges.
KAG in Tokyo is presenting a group exhibition titled "月を射る" (Shooting the Moon), running from May 19 to August 16, 2026. The show takes its starting point from a prose poem of the same name by Korean poet Yun Dong-ju (1917–1945), who wrote it in 1939 under Japanese colonial rule and later died in a Fukuoka prison. The exhibition spans pre-war and wartime educational films, propaganda, performance, and contemporary fieldwork, featuring works by artists such as Inoue Kan (Lee Byung-woo), Choe Seung-hui, Kamei Fumio, Yoshimi Yasushi, Atsugi Taka, Fujii Hikaru, Yamamoto Seiko, T.T. Takemoto, Morita Reine, Gataro, and Shirakawa Masao. It examines the management models formed by the former empire and the spiritual structure of colonialism that underlies contemporary issues, centering on works that carry the "memory of censorship"—banned, deleted, or denied existence by national, administrative, or social norms.
The Oceanside Museum of Art is set to launch a new exhibition titled "The Art of Burnout and Rest," exploring the psychological and physical impacts of modern exhaustion. The show features a diverse range of contemporary works that examine the societal pressures leading to burnout while offering visual meditations on the necessity of recovery and stillness.
Yoann Cormier curates 'In Mali, When Animals Dance' at the Musée des Confluences, an exhibition dedicated to sogo bò, a Malian performance tradition blending theater, dance, music, and community. Rejecting static displays, Cormier uses immersive scenography—light, sound, film footage from the early 2000s by Sonia and Albert Loeb, and reconstructed masks made with the Lyon Opera costume workshop—to evoke the festive atmosphere of sogo bò, moving visitors through a simulated Malian day from afternoon to night.
ROCÍO SÁENZ: ORDEN SALVAJE
Mexican artist Rocío Sáenz presents "Orden salvaje" (Wild Order) at the Museo de las Artes de la Universidad de Guadalajara (MUSA), an exhibition featuring over 60 works created over three years. Spanning painting, ceramics, photography, and drawing, the collection explores the tension between beauty and horror, specifically addressing the harrowing reality of forced disappearances in Mexico. The exhibition is designed as an open studio, showcasing the artist's creative process alongside finished pieces that utilize black humor and satire to navigate themes of death and reconstruction.
Brea Gallery in Brea, California, opened its 41st annual "Made in California" juried art exhibition on Saturday, featuring over 90 artists from across the state. The show includes a range of mediums such as oil paintings, sculptures, and mixed media, with jurors selecting works from roughly 5,000 submissions. This year's exhibition explores themes of identity and social justice, with pieces like Angel Lesnikowski's "Othered Existence" addressing Arab identity and conflict, and Adam Singer's "Big Feelings" reflecting on aging and mortality in Los Angeles. A solo installation by Lorena Molina, "This must be the place," draws on her Salvadoran heritage and the immigrant experience.
The Krannert Art Museum is currently hosting the annual Master of Fine Arts Exhibition, showcasing the thesis work of eight graduate students from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign School of Art & Design. The exhibition features a diverse range of media, including sculptural 3D collages by Samantha Jones that critique the hypersexualization of Black girlhood, and a mixed-media experimental classroom by Anthony Obayomi that explores social justice and educational metrics. Other works, such as Emily Tomlinson’s text-based drawings, highlight themes of cataloging and observational study.
Teen Arts New Jersey has launched "Creative Change Makers," a group exhibition at the Long Branch Arts & Cultural Center featuring works by high school students from across the state. The showcase focuses on the theme of sustainable art, with visual, performing, and literary submissions exploring environmental issues, animal ecosystems, and community health. Selected top performers will receive honorariums during the New Jersey State Teen Arts Festival in June 2026.
Prince Saheed Adelakun has returned to Mydrim Gallery in Lagos for a solo exhibition titled "KókóẸwà" (Essence of Beauty), featuring 45 new works. The exhibition is divided into two distinct series: "Dúdúyẹmí," which celebrates the natural richness of dark skin and traditional adornments, and "Ojú Tó ń Sọ̀rọ̀," a collection of portraits focusing on the expressive power of the human gaze. Utilizing a unique and labor-intensive rope medium, Adelakun explores themes of femininity, resilience, and cultural identity.
The Millicent Rogers Museum in Taos has opened a posthumous retrospective dedicated to DeAnna Autumn Leaf Suazo, a rising Indigenous artist who was tragically killed in 2021 at the age of 29. The exhibition, titled "Honoring DeAnna Autumn Leaf Suazo," features over 20 works including large-format paintings, ledger drawings, and the first public display of illustrations from her children’s book, "Taos Pueblo Fall." The show highlights her unique aesthetic, which blended her Taos Pueblo and Diné heritage with influences from Japanese anime and manga.
The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California, will host the West Coast debut of “Radical Histories: Chicano Prints from the Smithsonian American Art Museum” on November 16. The exhibition features 60 works by some 40 artists and collectives from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, spanning over six decades of Chicano printmaking as a form of resistance, community building, and cultural reclamation. It traces key moments from the late 1960s Delano Grape Strike to the present, using silkscreens, posters, and offset prints. The Huntington has also commissioned a mural by Los Angeles–based artist Melissa Govea in partnership with Self Help Graphics & Art.
The Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas has opened a new exhibition that explores the relationship between art and the sea. The show brings together works from the museum's collection and loans to examine how artists have depicted, interpreted, and engaged with oceanic themes across different periods and cultures.
Matthew Hills, executive director of the Thunder Bay Art Gallery, gave local media a tour of the partially-completed facility on the city's north-side waterfront, confirming the opening has been delayed from 2025 to 2027. Inflation, supply-chain issues, and trade wars have driven the project cost to $74.7 million, with a $22.6 million funding shortfall. City council recently released $5 million to prevent a construction shutdown, and Hills said a phased opening in 2026 is under consideration. Current funding includes $37 million from the federal Canada Cultural Spaces Fund, $5.7 million from Ontario, $5.2 million from the city, and $4.9 million in private donations.
The Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC) censored an exhibition titled 'Constellation of Complicity: Visualising the Global Machinery of Authoritarian Solidarity' after pressure from the Chinese embassy. The exhibition, which opened on July 24, featured works by exiled artists from Myanmar, Iran, Russia, and Syria exploring authoritarian alliances. Following a visit by Chinese embassy staff, several works were removed, including a multimedia installation by a Tibetan artist, and texts mentioning 'Hong Kong', 'Tibet', and 'Uyghur' were redacted. The curator, Sai, a Myanmar artist in exile, said the interference was not unexpected.
Hot Snakes Studio, a six-member arts collective based in Leith's Custom House in Edinburgh, is preparing for its second exhibition, titled "Year of the Snake," opening later this month. The group, composed of working creators including Phil Morrell (Surface Ritual), Robbie McKay (Whisky Kuts), Matt Sloe (Sinclair), Ross MacRae, Rhory Gardiner (Hungry Window), and Tom Hatch (Journeyman Signs), will showcase personal work that explores themes such as folklore, African traditions, and environmental issues. The show is entirely self-funded and grassroots, with support from local businesses like Pizza Geeks.
The Fowler Museum at UCLA has opened 'Construction, Occupation,' an exhibition exploring the intersection of art, activism, and housing justice. The show revisits the 2016–17 occupation of the abandoned Cambridge Hotel in São Paulo, Brazil, by low-wage workers, refugees, and artists—a project known as the Cambridge Artistic Residency (CARe)—which led to the building's transformation into government-funded social housing and a cultural hub. Curated by Alex Ungprateeb Flynn, Juliana Caffé, and Yudi Rafael, the exhibition features 24 artists and collectives, primarily from Brazil, with photography, video, installations from the original residency, and newly commissioned works. It runs through January 11, 2026.
The New York Times reports on the difficulties faced by new museums opening in the current art landscape, highlighting financial pressures, shifting audience expectations, and geopolitical tensions. The article examines several recently opened or planned institutions, including the Grand Palais in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, and the National Museum of Qatar, detailing how each has navigated issues such as rising construction costs, sustainability concerns, and debates over cultural representation.
An exhibition titled "Celebrate People's History: Latin America and the Art of Protest" has opened at the Chico State Museum of Anthropology in Chico, California. Housed in the Meriam Library Building, the show features protest art from Latin America and Latinx communities in the U.S., addressing topics such as Dolores Huerta, ICE raids, and local issues like the killing of Desmond Phillips. The exhibition includes works from Pedal Press, a Chico-based organization, and offers interactive print materials for K-12 and college students, with free field trips available for school groups.
The Thriving Together Atlanta initiative is set to transform the former Atlanta Medical Center site in the Old Fourth Ward into a vibrant open-air gallery. On March 28, the project will unveil the BLVDNEXT construction art wrap, a large-scale visual installation designed to turn a construction perimeter into a public art space. The event will feature live mural painting, a Mobile Art Experience curated by NEXT and the National Black Arts Festival, and various artistic performances.